1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a lightweight flexible elongated lighting system, and more particularly to a lighting system which is adapted for activation in emergency situations to provide occupants with an egress from a structure, such as an aircraft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous examples of elongated lighting systems for indicating paths of egress and also for providing residential and occupational illumination have existed in the prior art.
Additionally, emergency lighting systems that can be autonomously activated, apart from a principal source of conventional power, are frequently utilized and sometimes even required by building codes and other regulations. In the military, emergency lighting systems have been proposed, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,232, to mark exits or escape hatches, e.g. on aircraft. A particular problem has occurred with helicopters, especially on flights over water, wherein due to their high center of gravity, the helicopter body will invert after a crash. Upon the inversion of the helicopter and in view of the consequential confusion produced on its occupants, it becomes extremely difficult to leave a sinking helicopter due to darkness or low visibility in water and the inverted state of the craft. If the occupants do not evacuate immediately from the helicopter, drowning will result. Other examples of emergency lighting systems in the environment of military aircraft are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,411,131, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,941.
The prior art has also suggested flexible elongated strip light systems, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,966, U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,458, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,767. The Litelab Corporation of New York, N.Y., provides a low voltage tube light under the trademark "Xanadu". Various configurations of tube lights are offered from either a shatterproof rigid polycarbonate or a cylindrical flexible polyvinylchloride material.
There is a present need in the prior art to provide a flexible elongated lighting system capable of an efficient and optimum use of the light generated, and more particularly to provide an automatic emergency egress lighting system which can accomodate a diversity of sizes and shapes of points of egress, such as the escape doors and hatches on military helicopters.